DePuy Orthopedics, a unit of Johnson and Johnson, in 2010 made a voluntarily recall on its hip replacement devices after receiving thousands of complains for being defective, experts says. At present, DePuy Orthopedics is facing about 8,000 lawsuits wherein early in 2013 they will be sending in DePuy executives to testify in defective hip implant trial.
However, before DePuy Orthopaedic, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (J & J), was put into trial later this year, the company officials paid about $200,000 as settlement over two ASR hip implants lawsuits from Nevada.
One of those hip replacement devices made of metal alarmed the recipients due to some reports that it might had shred off tiny particles into the bloodstream, although no sufficient evidence yet leading to cancer.
What usually triggers a person to undergo hip replacement is when they suffering from osteoarthritis or a hip fracture.
Osteoarthritis is a form of arthritis that features the breakdown and eventual loss of the cartilage of one or more joints.
Cartilage is a protein substance that serves as a “cushion” between the bones of the joints. Among the over 100 different types of arthritis conditions, osteoarthritis is the most common, affecting over 25 million people in the United States.
Osteoarthritis usually shows signs as people ages. However, before age 45, osteoarthritis occurs more frequently in males while after 55 years of age, it occurs more frequently in females.
Osteoarthritis commonly affects the hands, feet, spine, and large weight-bearing joints, such as the hips and knees. Osteoarthritis usually has no known cause and is referred to as primary osteoarthritis. When the cause of the osteoarthritis is known, the condition is referred to as secondary osteoarthritis.
Primary osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis not resulting from injury or disease, is mostly a result of natural aging of the joint.
The settlement offer was considered by Eric Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan who follows the pharmaceutical industry as the expected J & J settlement offer where it ranges from P200, 000-500,000 per case.
J&J’s DePuy unit recalled its 93,000 ASR hips worldwide in 2010, including 37,000 in the U.S., saying more than 12 percent of the devices failed within five years. Lawsuits in federal and state courts describe patients in pain and immobilized by joint dislocations, infections and bone fractures. For more information check The DePuy Hip Recall Center at depuyrecallnewscenter.com
Kathleen is currently working as a legal medicine researcher focusing on hip replacements surgery cases. One of the major topics that she is working on is about how patients may be compensated after suffering from defective hip implants. People nowadays relay on hip replacements due to unbearable hip pains caused by osteoarthritis.
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